Page 316 - jane-eyre

stay in this chill gallery any longer.’
And so, by dint of alternate coaxing and commanding,
he contrived to get them all once more enclosed in their
separate dormitories. I did not wait to be ordered back to
mine, but retreated unnoticed, as unnoticed I had left it.
Not, however, to go to bed: on the contrary, I began and
dressed myself carefully. The sounds I had heard after the
scream, and the words that had been uttered, had proba-
bly been heard only by me; for they had proceeded from
the room above mine: but they assured me that it was not
a servant’s dream which had thus struck horror through
the house; and that the explanation Mr. Rochester had giv-
en was merely an invention framed to pacify his guests. I
dressed, then, to be ready for emergencies. When dressed,
I sat a long time by the window looking out over the silent
grounds and silvered fields and waiting for I knew not what.
It seemed to me that some event must follow the strange cry,
struggle, and call.
No: stillness returned: each murmur and movement
ceased gradually, and in about an hour Thornfield Hall was
again as hushed as a desert. It seemed that sleep and night
had resumed their empire. Meantime the moon declined:
she was about to set. Not liking to sit in the cold and dark-
ness, I thought I would lie down on my bed, dressed as I was.
I left the window, and moved with little noise across the
carpet; as I stooped to take off my shoes, a cautious hand
tapped low at the door.
‘Am I wanted?’ I asked.
‘Are you up?’ asked the voice I expected to hear, viz., my

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